Spanish is Latin Normally it is said that Spanish derives from Latin, but this formulation masks the very important fact that Spanish is the same linguistic entity that Latin was, only two millennia later. To be more precise, Spanish (Sp. español ) is the most widely used name of the current form of the Latin that developed in the north-central part of the Iberian Peninsula historically called Castile (whence the language's other name, Castilian, Sp. castellano ). The fact that Spanish is Latin is complicated by the fact that several other languages also developed from local forms of Latin, such that it is also true that French, Italian, Catalan, Portuguese, and Romanian are Latin. Together, these languages are known as the Romance languages, where the term Romance derives in from the spoken Latin phrase fabulāre (or parlāre ) romānicē 'to speak in the manner of the Romans', ie, speak Latin.

It is possible to trace the linguistic genealogy of Spanish backward in time to the Latin stage, but in order to understand the significance of each step in this process, it is necessary to know about the nature and mechanisms of language change.

Language Change All aspects of human culture are engaged in an implacable process of change. This is easily observable in most areas of human endeavor, including fashion, politics, media, technology, and human relations. This explains, for example, why today's grandparents dress differently from their grandchildren, have different political opinions, are slow in accepting modern digital technology and new means of communication, and are baffled by modern-day sexual mores and child-rearing practices. Inevitably, by the time today's children are grandparents, they will be similarly out-of-step with their grandchildren's world. Language, as a central aspect of human culture, is equally susceptible to this inexorable process of change. Some language change – especially the coining of new words – is in response to changes in other cultural spheres, but even the most abstract and fundamental components of a language – its sounds, grammatical forms, syntactic rules, and the meanings of words – are involved in a process that will eventually render the current form of today's languages all but unintelligible to future speakers.

A cursory examination of the new Diccionario panhispánico de dudas (2005), a book whose purpose is to identify changes in progress and either regulate them or try to stop them, provides an abundance of examples of language change in several categories.

Genealogy of Spanish Genealogia da Espanha In light of what we have just learned about language changes in progress, ie, changes that are taking place before our very eyes (or ears), it is possible to conceptualize the process whereby the language of ancient Rome undergoes so many changes, over a period of centuries, that its original form eventually becomes unintelligible to present-day speakers of the many forms of what might be called neo-Latin. À luz do que acabamos de aprender sobre as alterações de linguagem em curso, ou seja, as mudanças que estão ocorrendo diante de nossos olhos (ou ouvidos), é possível conceituar o processo pelo qual a linguagem de Roma antiga sofre tantas mudanças, ao longo de um período de séculos, que a sua forma original, eventualmente, se torna incompreensível a-dia apresentam alto-falantes das muitas formas do que poderia ser chamado de neo-latina. The fact that neo-Latin is now a family of languages (the Romance family) is also instructive, since it shows that when two or more communities that speak the same language become isolated from each other, the different trajectories of their local linguistic changes will eventually produce mutually unintelligible languages. O fato de que neo-latino-se agora uma família de línguas (a família Romance) também é instrutivo, pois mostra que quando duas ou mais comunidades que falam a mesma língua se isolados uns dos outros, as diferentes trajetórias de seus locais de mudanças linguísticas que eventualmente produzir línguas mutuamente ininteligíveis.

The history of the originally Latin-speaking populations over the last two millennia is such that there has been ample opportunity for independent evolution of local linguistic forms. A história da América de língua populações inicialmente sobre os dois últimos milênios é tal que tem havido uma grande oportunidade de evolução independente do local formas lingüísticas. By tracing this evolution, we are essentially describing the genealogy of the Spanish language. Ao traçar a evolução, nós estamos a descrever a genealogia da língua espanhola.

It is customary to refer to the spoken Latin of the mid-to-late first millennium as Proto-Romance, where the prefix proto- denotes a language for which there is no written evidence. É costume referir ao latim falado da-a-final do primeiro milênio meados de proto-românica, onde o prefixo proto-denota uma linguagem para a qual não há provas escritas. An early division separates eastern from western Proto-Romance. Uma divisão início separa leste do oeste do proto-romance. In the east we see the eventual development of Rumanian, some southern Italian dialects, and the now-extinct language called Dalmatian. No leste, vemos o eventual desenvolvimento de romenos, alguns dialetos italianos do sul, e do extinto idioma chamado agora dálmata. Western Proto-Romance undergoes further internal division into Proto-Gallo-Romance (from which eventually French and Occitan arise), Proto-Italo-Romance (the ancestor of standard Italian and northern Italian dialects), and Proto-Ibero-Romance, a language that arises on the Iberian Peninsula and eventually – perhaps by the beginning of the second millennium – differentiates into the ancestors of Galician-Portuguese in the west, Hispano-Romance (including Asturian, Leonese, Castilian, Navarrese, and Aragonese) in the center, and Catalan in the east. Proto-Romance Ocidental sofre ainda mais a divisão interna em proto-galo-românicas (de onde, eventualmente, francês e occitano surgir), Proto-ítalo-Romance (o antepassado de padrão italiano e dialetos italianos do norte), e Proto-Ibero-Romance, uma linguagem que surge na Península Ibérica e, eventualmente, - talvez o início do segundo milênio - se diferencia em antepassados de Galego-Português, no oeste, hispano-Romance (incluindo o asturiano, leonês, o castelhano, Navarra e Aragão), no centro, eo catalão a leste. As we shall see below, historical events conspire to make Castilian dominant in this last group. Como veremos a seguir, os acontecimentos históricos conspiram para tornar castelhano dominante neste último grupo.

External History História Externa From a linguistic point of view, the two most important events in the external history of the Iberian Peninsula are the Roman invasion, which results in the imposition of Latin as the predominant language of the region, and the Reconquest of the Penisula after the Moorish invasion of 711, which eventually results in the establishment of Castilian – one of many competing dialects of Ibero- and Hispano-Romance – as the standard language of Spain. Do ponto de vista lingüístico, os dois eventos mais importantes da história externa da Península Ibérica são os invasão romana, o que resulta na imposição do latim como língua predominante da região, e Reconquista da península, após a invasão moura de 711, o que acaba por resultar no estabelecimento de castelhano - um dos muitos dialetos concorrentes dos Estados Ibero-e hispano-românicas - como a linguagem padrão da Espanha. Below I describe these two events in more detail. Abaixo eu descrevo estes dois eventos em detalhes.

The Romans enter the Iberian Peninsula for the first time in 218 BCE during the Second Punic War (218-201 BCE) against the Carthaginians, a Phoenician people who had established their capital city, Carthage, in what is now Tunisia. Os romanos entrar na Península Ibérica, pela primeira vez em 218 aC durante a Segunda Guerra Púnica (218-201 aC) contra os cartagineses, povo fenício, que tinha estabelecido sua capital, Cartago, no que é hoje a Tunísia. As an outcome of this conflict, Carthage cedes all claims on the Iberian Peninsula to the Romans, who launch a protracted military campaign to wrest control of the territory from its inhabitants (primarily Iberians, Celts, and the mixed Celtiberians), culminating in final victory some 199 years later (in 19 BCE). Como resultado deste conflito, Cartago cede todos os direitos sobre a Península Ibérica pelos romanos, que lançará uma campanha militar prolongada para tirar o controle do território de seus habitantes (principalmente iberos, celtas e os celtiberos misto), culminando na vitória final alguns 199 anos depois (em 19 aC). The replacement of the conquered peoples' languages by Latin occurs over a long period as a result of the settlement of the area by Roman soldiers, administrators, and colonists and the accompanying imposition of Roman law and customs. A substituição de conquistada por povos línguas da América ocorre durante um longo período, como resultado da ocupação do seu território por soldados romanos, administradores e colonos ea imposição de acompanhamento do direito romano e dos costumes. The resulting economic and demographic environment makes the advantages of becoming bilingual in Latin, and eventually shifting entirely to Latin, irresistible to succeeding generations of non-Romans. O ambiente econômico e demográfico resultante faz com que as vantagens de se tornar bilíngüe em latim e, eventualmente, mudar totalmente para o latim, irresistível para as gerações seguintes de não-romanos.

The ties between the Iberian Peninsula and Rome become steadily more tenuous until the fall of the Empire in 476 CE. Os laços entre a Península Ibérica e Roma se tornar cada vez mais tênue, até a queda do Império em 476 CE. Rome is able to rid the Peninsula of the first wave of barbarian invasions (by the Vandals and Swabians in 409), but only by enlisting the aid of yet another group of barbarians, the Visigoths, who eventually settle in southern Gaul. Roma é capaz de livrar a Península de a primeira onda de invasões dos bárbaros (pelos vândalos e os suevos em 409), mas somente buscando a ajuda de outro grupo de bárbaros, os visigodos, que acabaram por resolver no sul da Gália. When in 507 the Visigoths come under pressure from the Franks invading from the north, they re-enter the Peninsula and establish military and political control. Quando em 507 os visigodos sob pressão dos francos invasores do norte, que re-entrar na península e estabelecer políticas e controle militar. For cartographic illustrations of this and subsequent periods of Iberian history, see the WHKMLA website at http://www.zum.de/whkmla/histatlas/spain/haxspain.html. Para ilustrações cartográficas deste e subseqüentes períodos da história Ibérica, consulte o site WHKMLA na http://www.zum.de/whkmla/histatlas/spain/haxspain.html.

The Iberian Peninsula might today be culturally aligned with northern Africa were it not for the fact that the Moors do not quite complete the task of removing all traces of Visigothic rule. A Península Ibérica pode hoje ser cultural alinhado com o norte da África, não fosse o fato de que os árabes não chegam a completar a tarefa de remover todos os vestígios do domínio visigótico. In practice, their control never reaches the northernmost parts of the Peninsula, which allows remnants of the Visigothic court to become established in Asturias. Na prática, o controle nunca atinge as partes mais ao norte da Península, que permite que os restos do tribunal visigótica estabelecer-se nas Astúrias. This region then become a base from which a campaign to reconquer the lost territories is launched. Esta região, em seguida, tornar-se uma base de que uma campanha para reconquistar os territórios perdidos é lançado. The resulting struggle lasts for almost eight centuries. A luta resultante dura quase oito séculos. By the year 1000 the Christian kingdoms in the north (Galicia, León, Navarre) have managed to retake approximately one-third of the lost lands, and the year 1080 sees the reconquest of the former Visigothic capital Toledo by a kingdom comprising León and its former dependent Castile. Até o ano 1000 os reinos cristãos no norte (Galiza, Leão, Navarra) conseguiram retomar aproximadamente um terço das terras perdidas, eo ano de 1080 vê a reconquista da capital visigótica de Toledo antigo por um reino que inclui León e seus antiga Castela dependentes. Muslim power suffers a decisive setback in 1212 with the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (Jaén), and thereafter the now dominant Kingdom of Castile quickly conquers all the most important cities in the southwest part of the Peninsula, including Cordoba, Seville, and Jerez. poder muçulmano sofre uma derrota decisiva em 1212 com a batalha de Navas de Tolosa (Jaén) e, posteriormente, o Reino agora dominante de Castela rapidamente conquistou todas as cidades mais importantes na parte sudoeste da península, incluindo Córdoba, Sevilha e Jerez de la Frontera . The Moorish Kingdom of Granada is allowed to continue to exist in southeast Spain as a tributary of Castile for another two centuries (until 1492) due to the slow pace of repopulation of reconquered areas and nagging political instability in Castile. O reino mouro de Granada é permitido continuar a existir no sudeste da Espanha, um afluente de Castela por mais dois séculos (até 1492), devido à lentidão do processo de repovoamento de áreas reconquistadas e instabilidade política persistente em Castela.

As I hinted above, the region that eventually seizes political power in the central part of the Iberian Peninsula – Castile – has humble beginnings. Como sugeri acima, a região que eventualmente se apropria do poder político na parte central da Península Ibérica - Castela - tem origens humildes. Originally a county under the kingdom of Leon, Castile (whose name derives from Lat. castella 'military emcampments') becomes coequal with Leon by 1004, and very soon attains political and military domination. Originalmente um condado sob o reino de Leão, Castela (cujo nome deriva do Lat. Castella militares emcampments) torna-se co-igual com Leão em 1004, e logo alcança e militar de dominação política. Ironically, Castile is originally among the most uncultured and backward parts of the Peninsula, having been only partially Romanized (as shown by the continuing nearby existence of Basque, a language that may have been spoken by many Castilian bilinguals at one time), only partially controlled by the Visigoths, and overlooked entirely by the Moors. Ironicamente, Castela é originalmente entre os incultos e para trás partes mais da península, tendo sido apenas parcialmente romanizados (como mostra a próxima existência continuada do basco, uma língua que pode ter sido falado por muitos bilíngües castelhano ao mesmo tempo), apenas parcialmente controlada pelos visigodos, e totalmente ignorado pelos mouros. Nevertheless, when the Castilians become the dominant force in the Reconquest, their language and culture experience a steady gain in prestige that eventually establishes them as the cultural and political center of the emerging nation-state known as Spain. No entanto, quando os castelhanos se tornar a força dominante na Reconquista, a sua língua e vivenciar a cultura um ganho constante de prestígio que, eventualmente, estabelece-los como o centro cultural e político do Estado-nação emergente conhecida como Espanha. Without the Moorish invasion and the resultant Christian Reconquest, Castilian language and culture might have remained on the periphery of Iberian society. Sem a invasão dos mouros e os cristãos Reconquista resultante, a língua castelhana e cultura poderia ter permanecido na periferia da sociedade ibérica.

The year 1492 is of special significance to the history of Spain and especially to the history of the Spanish language, because of the following events: O ano de 1492 é de especial significado para a história da Espanha e, especialmente, para a história da língua espanhola, por causa dos seguintes eventos: (1) the completion of the Reconquest under the Reyes Católicos (Ferdinand and Isabella), with the capitulation of Granada, (2) the “discovery” of America by Christopher Columbus on an expedition sponsored by the Spanish crown, (3) the tragic expulsion of Spanish Jews who refuse to convert to Catholicism (an event whose consequences include the development of an archaic Jewish dialect of Spanish called Sefardí, still spoken today), (4) the publication of a grammar of Spanish – the first grammar ever of a European language – and of a Latin-Spanish dictionary, both by Antonio de Nebrija. (1) a conclusão da Reconquista sob o Reyes Católicos (Fernando e Isabel), com a capitulação de Granada, (2) a "descoberta" da América por Cristóvão Colombo em uma expedição patrocinada pela coroa espanhola (3), o trágico expulsão dos judeus espanhóis que se recusam a se converter ao catolicismo (um evento cujas conseqüências incluem o desenvolvimento de um judeu arcaico dialeto do espanhol Sefardí chamado, ainda hoje falada), (4) a publicação de uma gramática da língua espanhola - a primeira gramática de uma vez língua europeia - e de um dicionário latim-espanhol, tanto por Antonio de Nebrija.

After the Middle Ages and up to the present, several additional events have been of special importance in driving the evolution of the Spanish language. One very important event is Spain's participation in the Renaissance, a cultural revolution originating in 14 th -century Italy that replaces the theological preoccupations of the Middle Ages with humanism inspired by Greco-Roman antiquity. As a result, the greatest authors of this period – including Juan de Mena and Fernando de Rojas – enrich the Spanish language with words and stylistic cues taken directly from Latin and Greek. This movement reaches its culmination in Spain with the so-called Siglo de Oro, which stretches from 1517 to 1665 and includes the works of some of Spain's greatest authors, including Miguel de Cervantes, Lope de Vega, and Francisco de Quevedo. Ironically, this period of unparalleled literary creativity coincides with a period of grave economic and political crisis in Spain, the fundamental problem being that Spain's economy, in spite of the large amounts of gold and silver imported from the American colonies, is unable to sustain the very costly and prolonged wars against Protestantism waged by Felipe II (1556-98) and his successors. Political and economic instability continue to plague Spain throughout subsequent centuries. Among the linguistic highlights of this period are the publication in 1611 of the first monolingual dictionary of Spanish, by Sebastián de Covarrubias; the establishment in 1713 of the Royal Spanish Academy of the Language, whose authoritative dictionary is now in its 23 rd edition (2005); and the establishment in 1813 of Spanish (rather than Latin) as the language of instruction in Spanish universities. Após a Idade Média e até os dias atuais, vários eventos adicionais foram de especial importância na condução da evolução da língua espanhola. Um importante evento muito é de participação de Espanha no Renascimento, uma revolução cultural originários de 14 do século Itália ª que substitui the theological preoccupations of the Middle Ages with humanism inspired by Greco-Roman antiquity. As a result, the greatest authors of this period – including Juan de Mena and Fernando de Rojas – enrich the Spanish language with words and stylistic cues taken directly from Latin and Greek. This movement reaches its culmination in Spain with the so-called Siglo de Oro, which stretches from 1517 to 1665 and includes the works of some of Spain's greatest authors, including Miguel de Cervantes, Lope de Vega, and Francisco de Quevedo. Ironically , this period of unparalleled literary creativity coincides with a period of grave economic and political crisis in Spain, the fundamental problem being that Spain's economy, in spite of the large amounts of gold and silver imported from the American colonies, is unable to sustain the very costly and prolonged wars against Protestantism waged by Felipe II (1556-98) and his successors. Political and economic instability continue to plague Spain throughout subsequent centuries. Among the linguistic highlights of this period are the publication in 1611 of the first monolingual dictionary of Spanish , by Sebastián de Covarrubias; the establishment in 1713 of the Royal Spanish Academy of the Language, whose authoritative dictionary is now in its 23 rd edition (2005); and the establishment in 1813 of Spanish (rather than Latin) as the language of instruction in Spanish universities.

Internal history The history of the Spanish language since its beginnings as the spoken Latin of the Iberian Peninsula has been characterized by the kinds of changes outlined above in the discussion of language change. No aspect or component of the language has escaped this process. By comparing medieval Castilian with written Latin we can deduce to a large degree what changes took place during the first millennium CE; thereafter, we have a steady stream of Castilian texts, produced over a number of centuries, that chronicle changes as they are happening. The existence of Latin and Castilian texts are extremely helpful in understanding the changes that have taken place, but they are also less than ideal in several ways, in particular in that (1) written texts cannot be expected to reflect actual pronunciation (although Spanish orthography is considerably more phonetic than that of English), and (2) the kinds of texts likely to survive for centuries necessarily reflect only the most formal registers of speech.

Below I trace some of the major changes that take place in the morphology, syntax, phonology, and lexicon of the language over the last two millennia. Since a KNOL article is meant to be minimally complex and maximally interesting, I will not attempt a systematic description of the changes in each component, but will instead limit myself to the presentation and analysis of examples. For readers who find that they want to know more about specific types of change, I have listed more complete sources of information at the end of this article.

Morphology . The term “morphology” refers to the component parts of words and their grammatical functions. While words in functional categories such as adverb ( pronto 'soon'), preposition ( para 'for'), and conjunction ( aunque 'although') tend to be invariable, ie, to lack morphological variation, this cannot be said of words in the verbal and nominal categories. As we shall see, while the verbal morphology of Latin changed comparatively little in its evolution toward Spanish, the Latin nominal system (a category that includes nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles) has undergone a fundamental transformation.

The essential similarity between the Latin and Spanish verbal systems can be appreciated in a comparison of the present-tense (active, indicative) conjugations of their respective verbs meaning 'to love', ie, amāre and amar .

Latin Spanish Espanhol

First person, singular amō amo

Second person, singular amās amas

Third person, singular amat ama

First person, plural amāmus amamos

Second person, plural amātis amáis

Third person, plural amant aman

Here we see that the Spanish verbal system has preserved the categories of person (first, second, third) and number (singular, plural), such that the two conjugations retain an astonishing similarity. Also surviving the long process of evolution are the categories of mood (indicative, subjunctive, imperative), tense (present, past, future), aspect (perfect, imperfect), and voice (active, passive).

Conversely, the evolution of the verbal system is very much affected by a general tendency, in the more modern forms of the language, to express certain verbal categories through means more analytical (with more than one word) than synthetic (word plus inflectional ending). For example, while the forms of the Latin passive consist, in most tenses, of a single verb form accompanied by a passive inflection ( amātur 'he/she is loved'), in Castilian this is expressed through a phrase consisting of an auxiliary verb and a participle ( es amado ). Another example: while the Latin future is formed by adding an inflectional ending ( amābit 'he/she will love'), Medieval Castilian utilizes a paraphrase based on the infinitive plus a form of the auxiliary verb auer 'to have' ( amar e – a structure which, ironically, has become synthetic again in Modern Spanish as amaré ). The use of auer (Mod. Sp. haber ) as an auxiliary verb with participles also makes possible the creation of perfect tenses that did not exist in Latin, such as the present perfect indicative (Med. Cast. e amado 'I have loved') and subjunctive ( aya amado 'I may have loved').

Latin noun morphology is just as complex as its verbal counterpart, such that nouns, pronouns, and adjectives must be described in terms of paradigms – called declensions – that are in every respect parallel to verb conjugations. As the comparison below of the Latin and Spanish words for 'friend' shows, these paradigms are essentially absent in Spanish.

Latin Spanish Espanhol

Nominative singular amīcus

Genitive singular amīcī

Dative singular amīcō

Accusative singular amīcum amigo

Ablative singular amīcō

Vocative singular amīce

Nominative plural amīcī

Genitive plural amīcōrum

Dative plural amīcīs

Accusative plural amīcōs amigos

Ablative plural amīcīs

Vocative plural am ī c ī

Here we see that while Spanish retains the distinction between singular and plural, it has lost any reference to case. Case refers to grammatical categories such as subject (nominative), indirect object (dative), and direct object (accusative), expressed in Latin nouns through inflectional endings. Thus, a Latin sentence indicates subject and object case primarily through case endings (cf. amīcus videt and videt amīcus , both of which mean 'the friend sees' as against amīcum videt and videt amīcum , both 'he/she sees the friend'), while Spanish communicates this information primarily through word order ( el amigo ve 'the friend sees' vs. ve al amigo 'he/she sees the friend').

Other important changes in the nominal system of Latin: (1) the reduction in genders from three (masculine, feminine, neuter) to two (masculine, feminine), whereby most but not all neuter nouns switch to masculine gender; (2) the expansion of the second person pronoun paradigm to include a distinction between familiar and formal, so that Lat. tū 'you (sg.)' corresponds in Medieval Castilian to both tu (familiar) and uos (formal) (Mod. Sp. tú and usted ); (3) the creation of two new nominal categories on the basis of the Latin demonstrative pronoun ille (fem. illa ), viz., third-person pronouns (Sp. él , ella ), and definite articles (Sp. el , la ).

All languages have internal resources for creating new lexical items, and Spanish is no exception. Todas as línguas têm recursos internos para a criação de novos itens lexicais e espanhol não é exceção. In Spanish, by far the most common internal recourse is affixation, ie, the attachment of a prefix or suffix to a word. The most common Spanish prefixes are patrimonial, and have functional meanings, as in des -, which may indicate reversal ( abotonar 'to button up' → desabotonar 'to unbutton') or opposite ( honesto 'honest' → deshonesto 'dishonest'); re -, which indicates repetition ( hacer 'to do' → rehacer 'to redo') or intensity ( bien 'well' → rebién 'very well'); and sobre -, which indicates position ( poner 'to put, place' → sobreponer 'to superimpose'). Spanish also has a large number of learned prefixes, ie, prefixes borrowed from Latin ( ambidiestro 'ambidextrous', bianual 'biannual', centilitro 'centiliter') or Greek ( afónico 'hoarse', antiamericano 'anti-American', di-crónico 'diachronic'). Unlike prefixes, which alter the meanings but not the grammatical categories of words, the very numerous set of Spanish suffixes includes examples that can do both, as in hallazgo 'finding', a noun derived from the verb hallar 'to find', and the verb españolizar 'to make Spanish', derived from the adjective español 'Spanish'. As in the case of prefixes, we find suffixes of both patrimonial and learned origin fulfilling a number of functions, including intensity ( grande 'large' → grandísimo 'extremely large'), size ( mesa 'table' → mesita 'small table'), characteristic activity ( payaso 'clown' → payasada 'clowning around'), passive possibility ( soportar 'to tolerate' → soportable 'tolerable'), and similiarity ( sufijo 'suffix' → sufijoide 'suffixoid').

There are a number of less productive recourses for making new words. Compounding, the process whereby two independent words are combined to form a new one, is relatively rare in Spanish in comparison to languages such as English and German. Examples include actor-director , which implies that the referent plays two roles at the same time; hombre-lobo 'werewolf' (from hombre and lobo 'wolf'), which designates a type of man; and sacapuntas 'pencil sharpener' (from sacar 'to pull out' + punta 'point'), designating an object that performs a function. Other procedures occur even less frequently, cf. clips ( divertido 'fun' → diver 'fun'), blends ( burro 'ass' + burocracia 'bureaucracy' → burrocracia 'stubborn bureaucracy'), acronyms ( Organización del Tratado del Atlántico Norte → OTAN 'NATO'), reduplications ( lamer 'to lick' → lame-lame 'brown-noser'), and onomatopoeias ( zas 'whoosh', 'bang').

Varieties of Spanish In our portrayal of the genealogy of Spanish, we showed that early Castilian is one of several varieties that develop from the Ibero-Romance variety called Hispano-Romance. Traces of these ancient varieties – Asturian and Leonese in the northwest, Navarrese and Aragonese in the northeast – still exist in rural areas, and they are sometimes erroneously referred to as dialects or varieties of Castilian. In reality, they are “sister” varieties rather than “daughter” varieties.

As I mentioned above, language varieties come about whenever language communities divide into isolated subgroups. During and after the final phases of the Reconquest, this situation arises in the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula, in the area called Andalusia (Sp. Andalucía ). Several factors work together to allow the Castilian spoken in this region to develop a highly idiosyncratic character. First, the mountain range known as the Sierra Morena represents a geographical barrier to communication between Andalusia and the rest of Spain. Second, due to preoccupations with its internal political situation, Castile remains indifferent to Andalusia for several centuries. Third, the newly conquered territory of Andalusia attracts settlers not only from Castile but from all other parts of the Peninsula and even from foreign lands. From this mixture of spoken varieties a new local standard is negotiated, in a process referred to as “leveling”.

As the term implies, leveling typically entails a process of simplification, whereby phonological and morphological distinctions may be lost, and indeed, the Andalusian variety is perhaps most clearly defined by simplifications in phonology (eg, seseo , the convergence of the /θ/ and /s/ phonemes in favor of the latter) and morphology (the replacement of the second-person plural familiar pronoun vosotros by its formal counterpart ustedes ). Andalusian phonology is also characterized generally by (1) a tendency to aspirate (pronounce as [h]) the phoneme /s/ in syllable-final position (cf. estas moscas [éhtah móhcah] 'these flies'), (2) the replacement of the Castilian velar [x] or uvular [X] fricative with the glottal [h] (gesto japonés [hésto haponéh] 'Japanese gesture'), (3) yeísmo , the replacement of the palatal lateral phoneme /λ/ by the non-lateral /j/ (hallé llaves [ajé jáβeh] 'I found keys'), and (4) a predorsal, convex articulation of /s/ (akin to the /s/ of standard American English) as opposed to the apico-alveolar (ie, tip-of-the-tongue) articulation characteristic of Castilian.

The overwhelming majority of today's Spanish speakers do not live in Spain but in Spanish America. Due to a historical coincidence of epic proportions, the war of Reconquest in Spain ends at the same time that Christopher Columbus encounters the New World, which he mistakes for India. Consequently, the Spaniards are able to transfer their domestic military campaigns seamlessly to a new continent, where their immense technological superiority enables them, in a short time, to seize large tracts of land, usurp local political power, enslave whole peoples, and take large amounts of precious metals back to Spain. After the initial waves of armed conquistadors at the beginning of the 16 th century, a stream of Spanish colonizers that continues unabated until well into the 19 th century brings Spanish language, laws, and customs to the New World. Their influence is such that Spanish is now an official language in nineteen Central and South American Countries and is spoken by well over 90% of their combined populations.

The same leveling process that results in the birth of the Andalusian variety is also a major factor in the formation of the many local speech varieties in Spanish America. O processo de nivelamento mesmo que resulta no nascimento da variedade da Andaluzia é também um factor importante na formação das muitas variedades de discurso locais na América espanhola. The majority of conquistadors and settlers are Castilians, Andalusians, or Canary Islanders (whose dialect is very much akin to that of western Andalusia), but immigrants from Galicia and the entire eastern half of Spain are also common. A maioria dos conquistadores e colonizadores são castelhanos, andaluzes, ou Canárias Ilhéus (cujo dialeto é muito semelhante à da Andaluzia ocidental), mas os imigrantes da Galiza e do leste da metade inteira da Espanha também são comuns. Here, the leveling process leads to the universal adoption of the Andalusian seseo and replacement of vosotros . Aqui, o processo de nivelamento leva à adoção universal da seseo andaluz e substituição de vosotros. Two additional factors are decisive in the determination of local speech characteristics in America. Dois outros fatores são decisivos na determinação das características do discurso locais nos Estados Unidos. First is the intensity and nature of contact with Spain that applied in each area. A primeira é a intensidade e natureza do contacto com a Espanha que o aplicado em cada área. Lowland areas, ie, coastal areas and the islands of the Caribbean, for example, maintain strong contact with the evolving language of Andalusia through that region's dominance in transatlantic transportation. áreas de várzea, ou seja, zonas costeiras e das ilhas do Caribe, por exemplo, manter um forte contato com a língua evolui através da Andaluzia, região que, em posição dominante de transporte transatlântico. This factor explains the fact that American lowlands varieties share additional significant traits with Andalusian, including all four of those listed above. Este fator explica o fato de que as planícies variedades americanos compartilham características adicionais significativas com Andaluzia, incluindo todos os quatro das listadas acima. The Spanish that arises in areas far from the coasts is less subject to this influence since, in administrative centers far from the sea – such as Bogotá and Mexico City – the prestige of Castilian remains paramount, though not to such a degree as to impede the leveling process. O espanhol que surge em áreas distantes da costa é menos sujeito a essa influência, pois, em centros administrativos longe do mar - como Bogotá e Cidade do México - o prestígio do castelhano continua a ser fundamental, embora não a tal ponto de dificultar a nivelamento processo. The second factor is patterns of immigration to Spanish America, especially in the nineteenth century. O segundo fator são os padrões de imigração para a América espanhola, especialmente no século XIX. Records show that Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela received so many Andalusians and especially Canary Islanders through this century that their speech had a decisive effect on local speech patterns. Registros mostram que Cuba, Porto Rico e Venezuela, assim que recebeu muitos andaluzes e especialmente das ilhas Canárias, através deste século que o seu discurso teve um efeito decisivo sobre os padrões de voz local. Indeed, to an outsider's ear the Spanish of the Caribbean, Canary Islands, and Andalusia are strikingly similar. De fato, para alguém de fora de uma orelha a espanhola do Caribe, Ilhas Canárias e Andaluzia são notavelmente semelhantes.

Readers can experience regional accents from around the Spanish-speaking world by access a database created by Prof. Terrell A. Morgan of Ohio State University at the following URL: Leitores podem experimentar sotaques regionais de todo o mundo de língua espanhola por acessar um banco de dados criado pelo Prof Terrell A. Morgan, da Ohio State University, na seguinte URL: http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/morgan3/catalog.html. http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/morgan3/catalog.html.

Spanish Language Myths Mitos Língua Espanhola The lack of accurate knowledge about the history of the Spanish language has contributed to the origination of a series of myths about Spanish phonology and morphology. A falta de conhecimento exato sobre a história da língua espanhola tem contribuído para a origem de uma série de mitos sobre a fonologia e morfologia espanhol. Unfortunately, it seems to be the case that the primary transmitters of these myths are teachers of Spanish, whose authority may explain why some of these misguided explanations have achieved the status of accepted fact. Infelizmente, parece ser o caso que os transmissores principais desses mitos são professores de espanhol, cuja autoridade pode explicar porque algumas dessas explicações equivocadas tenham atingido o estatuto de facto aceite. Below I address some of the more common myths. Abaixo vou abordar alguns dos mitos mais comuns.

Myth #1 : Mito 1: The zeta sound (unvoiced interdental fricative /θ/) entered Peninsular Spanish when the defective speech of a lisping king was imitated by the court – either because of his prestige or to avoid offending him – whence it spread to the general population. O som zeta (surda interdental fricativo / θ /) entrou Peninsular espanhol quando o discurso com defeito de um rei ceceio foi imitado pelo tribunal - ou por causa de seu prestígio ou para evitar ofendê-lo - de onde se espalhou para a população em geral. This myth is widespread among Spanish teachers in the United States and I have seen reference to it on Spanish American websites as well. Este mito é difundido entre professores de espanhol nos Estados Unidos e tenho visto referência a ele em espanhol websites americanos. Since American varieties of Spanish do not have the unvoiced interdental fricative /θ/ in their speech, its presence in Peninsular varieties is viewed as an eccentricity in need of explanation. Desde variedades americanas do espanhol não tem a surda interdental fricativo / θ /, em seu discurso, a sua presença em variedades Peninsular é visto como uma excentricidade que necessitam de explicação.

In practice, of course, the Spanish orthographic systems works very well, in the sense that knowing how to spell a word is almost always sufficient information to know how the word is pronounced. The corollary is not true, however: Knowing how a word is pronounced is not always sufficient to know how it is spelled, given that, for example, the letters g , j , and x may all represent /x/, b and v represent /b/, y and /λ/ represent /j/, and, in many dialects, s , c , and z represent /s/. These account for misspellings such as jemir for gemir 'to whine', berde for verde 'green', yave for llave 'key', and sinco or zinco for cinco 'five'.

Myth #4 . The letter v should be pronounced as a voiced labiodental fricative. It is easy to undertand why some people would believe this myth, given what I have just said about the desirability of phonemic orthographic systems. Many Spanish speakers would find it satisfying to assign a labiodental pronunciation to the sound represented by the letter v , but the fact is that this letter is normally pronounced [b] or [ β ] (ie, as a bilabial stop or fricative, according to environment) in all varieties of Spanish.

Modern day dialectologists have found occurrences of the labiodental pronunciation of the letter v in isolated areas, including the Spanish provinces of Valencia, and in New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Paraguay. According to Juan M. Lope Blanch (1988), almost without exception these instances can be attributed to interference of neighboring languages that happen to have the voiced labiodental phoneme, ie, Valenciano in Valencia; English in New Mexico, Arizona and California; and Guaraní in Paraguay.

When [v] occurs outside of these areas, it is evidence that this myth owes its existence primarily to Spanish teachers who want to infuse their idiolects and those of their students with the added feature of a phonetic distinction between the two letters b and v . In doing so they hope to resolve one of the thorniest orthographical difficulties in the language, thus obviating the need to refer to them with colorful names such as b larga 'long b ' and v corta 'short v ' or b de burro ' b as in burro ' and v de vaca ' v as in vaca '.

Analysis of this phenomenon from both phonetic and sociolinguistic points of view shows that, in all these areas, the use of the voiced labiodental is in essence a hypercorrection. According to Tomás Navarro (1957), the articulation can be observed only in “personas demiasiado influidas por prejuicios ortográficos o particularmente propensas a afectación” (persons too much influenced by orthographic prejudices or particularly prone to affectation'). This assessment is second by both Lope Blanch, who labels this usage “ v pedante” (pedantic v ) and Malmberg (1950), who identifies it as a trait of “la pronunciación escolar” (school pronunciation).

Myth #5 . The pronoun sequence le lo is cacophonous. Spanish grammar stipulates that the third-person indirect object clitic pronouns le and les change to se when followed by the third-person direct object clitic pronouns lo , los , la , las . Since all other pronominal changes in form are triggered by changes in function – eg, él (subject), le (indirect object), lo (direct object) – rather than environment, this change is perceived as aberrant and thus in need of an explanation. A tradition has arisen whereby the impermissibility of the sequences le lo and les lo is attributed to a stylistic factor, ie, the supposed cacophony of these pronouns when pronounced in sequence.

This assertion is demonstrably false, since these syllable sequences occur frequently in Spanish. First, le lo and le la occur contiguously in lexical words such as lelo (fem. lela ) 'silly' and paralelo ( paralela ) 'parallel'. Second, both le and les precede lo occur in the sequence “indirect object pronoun + neuter article”, as in dile lo que piensas 'tell him what you think', dile lo mucho que lo quieres 'tell him how much you love him', and diles lo antes posible 'tell them as soon as possible'. These two categories are combined in my favorite example, dile lo lelo que es 'tell him how silly he is'. There is nothing remotely unusual or cacophonic about these sentences.

The historical explanation for the substitution of le and les by se is somewhat technical, and it is unreasonable to expect laypersons to understand its intricacies. Essentially, the Latin pronominal sequence from which se lo evolved – ill ī illu – underwent a series of regular phonetic changes that eventually produced ge lo ([ ž e lo] in medieval Castilian. This form was standard until the sixteenth century, when ge lo , presumably because of its isolation ( ge could not be used alone) was confused with the sequence se lo , composed of a reflexive pronoun plus a clitic pronoun, as in se lo lleva 'he/she takes it', se lo lava 'he/she washes it'. This confusion can be seen from our perspective as having added insult to injury, because the logical thing would have been to fix the ge problem by returning to an etymological solution, saying le lo , le la , etc.

I will briefly mention two other myths. The first is the idea that certain varieties of Spanish are more correct than others. In the Spanish-speaking world, this judgment is usually based on two factors: the degree to which the Spanish spoken in an area reflects orthography, and the prestige of the city in which it is spoken (where capital cities are almost always most prestigious). From another, sociolinguistic, point of view, however, it is clear that each Spanish variety is more appropriate than all others in the place where it is spoken: No matter how elegant Castilian Spanish may sound, a Cuban would be ill advised to use this variety in daily life. The second myth is the idea that Spanish is easy to learn for speakers of Western European languages. It is true that the simple noun morphology of Spanish (easy plurals, easy determination of gender) and the plethora of cognates present in most European languages make for quick progress in the early stages of learning Spanish, but our experience shows that the attainment of true mastery of Spanish is just as difficult as it is for any comparable language.

Takes readers step by step through the phonological system of Spanish, with interesting additions on American varieties of Spanish.

Introduction to the History of Spanish

David A. Pharies. Breve historia de la lengua es pañola . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007. Simultaneously published in English under the title A Brief History of the Spanish Language .

This book, the only true introduction to the history of Spanish available today, provides a more detailed discussion of all the topics covered above. Moreover, it is structured in such a way as to provide a more than superficial acquaintance with the Medieval Castilian of the thirteenth century. Its appendices include maps, indices of words and topics, works cited, a glossary of linguistic terms, and an introduction to the rudiments of Spanish phonology.

Historical Grammar

Ralph Penny. A History of the Spanish Language . Second edition. Cambridge: University Press, 2002. The first edition (1991) also appeared in Spanish translation as Gramática histórica del español, Barcelona: Ariel, 1993.

This is the clearest and most comprehensive description of the development of Spanish phonology, morphology, and lexis. It does not address syntax, and includes very little information on external history.

External History

Simon Barton. A History of Spain . New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

Like other books on the topic, this one tends to provide more details than most readers are likely to need. It is, however, an authoritative and complete alternative to the many impressionistic histories that can be found on the internet.

Spanish-American Dialectology

John M. Lipski. Latin American Spanish . London: Longman, 1994.

The most comprehensive source of information about Spanish-American dialects, including important information on the origins and American Spanish, including

indigenous and African elements.

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Last edited Mar 28, 2009 11:55 AM Report abusive comment Hide report window comentário abusivo Relatório Esconder janela de relatório 0 0 Post reply to this comment ▼ Hide replies to this comment ▲ Responder a este comentário ▼ Esconder respostas a este comentário ▲ Sign in to post a reply Faça login para postar uma resposta Jesse Smith Jesse Smith Very Informative So much information it is hard to digest all at once. I really appreciated the debunked myths. Some people should just not teach Spanish given that they would not know a quarter of this history.

I modified your text and the modification has been sent to you. The only the thing I did was to align the text using the 'justify' tool, in order to make your excellent article more pleasing on the eye.

Last edited Oct 11, 2008 1:26 AM Report abusive comment Hide report window comentário abusivo Relatório Esconder janela de relatório 0 0 Post reply to this comment ▼ Hide replies to this comment ▲ Responder a este comentário ▼ Esconder respostas a este comentário ▲ Sign in to post a reply Faça login para postar uma resposta Manuel Manuel Invitación a participar en el proyecto "Libros Colaborativos" Dear author, We have visited your knols and we find them really interesting. We´d like to invite you to join a new project aimed to better organize knols: "The Collaborative Books Project" http://knol.google.c om/k/internet-medica l-publishing/-/1bbsl e13m97c0/83#view Through these books an overall view on the matter will be achieved at the time that a continuous feedback will be obtained thus contributing to more visits and more revisions. That is why we invite you to join your knols within this project as a new book. You would retain your whole rights as the owner and author. You would simply had to create a new cover knol with the index of the book and links to the project. Please, do not hesitate to get in contact with us for any question at imedpub@gmail.com Best wishes. Muitas felicidades.

Last edited Aug 6, 2008 1:37 AM Report abusive comment Hide report window comentário abusivo Relatório Esconder janela de relatório 0 0 Post reply to this comment ▼ Hide replies to this comment ▲ Responder a este comentário ▼ Esconder respostas a este comentário ▲ Sign in to post a reply Faça login para postar uma resposta Jorge Paredes What about Greek roots? I think that this article is great but incomplete. I was tought during my highschool years at La Salle University that in order to understand words meaning and orihin in our language, they had to be analyzed through their ethimologies, which are Greek/Latin. From this perspective you'll find that many word's origin are completely Greek, completely Latin or a mix of both. It would be great if someone could complement this article including the vast Grrek influence.